most popular

There has been a shaking out period going on for a while in the solar industry. Big names like BP and Bosch have dropped their solar divisions, while other companies have just gone under like Konarka and of course, Solyndra (which never really was that big).

Well which manufacturers have not only held on, but are the most popular for solar installations in America’s largest solar market? We’re only looking at the last 2 years plus the first quarter of 2013. So that’s Jan 1, 2011 to Apr 17, 2013.

One great thing about the California Solar Initiative (CSI) is that they keep pretty good data on the solar in their state. Thankfully it’s the US State with the most solar installations (4 times as much as 2nd place, NJ). So we can use CA’s data to find out which solar panel brand is the most popular.

The two most popular are SunPower and Sharp. Then, there’s a big drop off to Kyocera and Suntech. You won’t see BP’s number get any higher as the company has decided to shut down it’s solar division.

So, now that we know which solar panel brands are being installed the most, let’s see how difficult it can be to compare solar panels.

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